#styrax

[faguscarolinensis]

Styrax obassia / Fragrant Snowbell at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[wenbochenphoto]

Snowdrop bush (Styrax officinalis). A pretty deciduous bush with fragrant flowers, native to southern Europe and the Middle East. This was in the mountains of Antalya, Turkey.

[uyamt]

えごのき Japanese snowbell (Styrax japonica)

[foolmarquis]

The ingredients I’ve ordered to make incense of the Feast Day of St Expedite are beginning to arrive. The first two are some White Frankincense Neglecta and some Peruvian “Myrrh” Styrax (or Styrax Weberbaueri) from Apothecary’s Garden. Pictured is a half-ounce of each held in small, three ounce glass jars.

As the global demand for such resins strains the trees that provide them, I feel both grateful and privileged that I can find a shop that offers sustainable options that work with the communities that harvest the resins. While I’ve found substitutes for frankincense in my more day to day practice, I still have a deep fondness for it, and I’m glad to be able to source it in a way that strives to reduce over-harvesting.

I’m also expecting some powdered benzoin, and some powdered copal that was collected from fallen resin that had collected for years beneath Hymenaea Courbaril trees in southern Mexico. Both will be part of a powder blend I want to create during the Feast Day, while the resins above will remain in larger chunks and mix with some bark chips, rose petals, and herbs.

[graveyard-guardian]

DAMN it feels good to finish all these projects 👌

[sunbadgerplants]

Japanese Snowbell (Styrax)

[archaeologicalnews]

Ancient Greek Murder Victim Died with Weirdly Perfect Circle in Chest

About 2,000 years ago, a heavily muscled man was murdered on a Greek island. The killer drove a seven-pointed spear into the man's chest with such force that it left a nearly perfect circle in his sternum, a new study finds.

Such an injury is rare, said study researcher Anagnostis Agelarakis, a professor of anthropology at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.

"In my 40 years that I am in the field, I never found something like that," Agelarakis told Live Science. "The way that the [spear's] penetration took place in [reference] to the bone, it is an exact 90-degree angle against the sternum."

In other words, the ancient spear — known as a styrax, the pointed end of a thrusting spear — wasn't thrown at the victim from a distance. Instead, it was likely thrust inward at close range and done with precision, possibly for an execution, Agelarakis said. An injury like that would have caused cardiac shock and arrest, likely killing the man within 1 minute, Agelarakis said. Read more.

[brittanyeburgard]

Quick little cross section of a Styrax redivivus (snowdrop bush) flower. They smell as lovely as they look! These uncommon shrubs are of conservation concern. #Styracaceae #Styrax #StyraxRedivivus #botany #plants #nature #art #science #scientificillustration #botanicalillustration #illustration #plantart #CalBG #nativeplants #conservation (at California Botanic Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_lxhLnAtE_/?igshid=57qw78s8eq4